Del Mar is associated with two contrasting forms of privilege in the novel: the polished coastal life of a defense attorney and the leisure routines of women connected to the drug trade. In both appearances, the town’s affluent setting sits close to institutions and agents watching the people who move through it.

Coastal Affluence

Ben Tompkins’s home is on the beach in Del Mar, part of a portrait of a defense attorney whose silver hair, surfer’s tan, and ocean-facing office in Cardiff make him conspicuously successful. His lifestyle sharpens the contrast between his professional role and that of the prosecutors who resent his wealth and his nickname, Minimum Ben. Del Mar thus helps locate Tompkins within a world of coastal comfort and status.

Resort Life Under Scrutiny

Del Mar also figures among the beach resorts visited by the wives of cartel figures. These women, already known to the Drug Enforcement Administration but not at risk of arrest, can travel as American citizens; their routines include sending their children to school in San Diego, Christmas shopping, spa days, and holidays in Del Mar and La Jolla. The place is part of an ordinary leisure circuit that coexists with the agents’ efforts to photograph mourners at the cathedral. That juxtaposition makes Del Mar more than a resort backdrop: it belongs to a network of comfortable lives that remains visible to law enforcement.